Shredgate: The saga continues

Court asked to order documents preserved

A man who is suing the city of Springfield for destroying police internal affairs records is asking a judge to bar the city from destroying more documents.

In an emergency motion for a protective order filed Monday, attorneys for Calvin Christian, who has requested dozens of police records as a private citizen and as an employee of Pure News, say that the city has an obligation to preserve evidence and to avoid doing anything that would prevent a court from granting relief in an underlying lawsuit in which Christian claims the city broke the law by destroying internal affairs files. Christian says that some files were destroyed after he requested them under the state Freedom of Information Act.

Christian’s lawyers filed the motion after the city council last week rejected an emergency resolution aimed at banning any further destruction of documents. A hearing on Christian’s request for emergency relief is scheduled for Wednesday.

Christian in his motion for an emergency order says that some records that were allegedly destroyed contrary to state law might still be recoverable from the city’s computer system. In addition to asking that the city be required to retain hard drives, backup files and other data storage systems in their present condition, Christian is asking a judge to bar the city from “engaging in any computer forensics” outside the presence of the plaintiff, lawyers for the plaintiff or an expert retained by the plaintiff.

Neither attorneys for Christian nor attorneys for the city could be reached for comment.